Dolphins appear to be the latest victim of red tide in Southwest Florida, as 22 have washed up dead on beaches in Collier and Lee counties since last Wednesday, one official said.

Blair Mase, a marine mammal stranding coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said tests need to be completed but that it seems the dolphins are being killed by brevetoxin from red tide.

Officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were testing water at beaches and collecting the bodies of dead dolphins and other marine life across Lee and Collier counties Monday.

When water testing results come in Wednesday morning, Mase said she expects to see a spike in red tide counts.

Dolphins aren’t the only animals affected by the suspected spike. Mase said dead sea turtles have been found on beaches in Lee and Collier counties and that there are reports of birds dying as well.

"What's concerning is the red tide also affects dolphin prey,” Mase said. “Dolphins can die from either inhalation of the toxin or eating prey that have been exposed to the red tide.”

Kim Amendola, the communications supervisor for NOAA Fisheries division, said it’s possible there are more dolphins and other animals killed by the red tide than are being found and reported.

Since July, higher than normal numbers of bottlenose dolphins have washed ashore dead in Collier, Lee, Charlotte, Sarasota, Manatee, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, according to NOAA.

Karenia brevis, the organism that causes red tide, occurs naturally. However, many water quality scientists say the blooms last longer and are more intense due to human activities such as farming and development.

After a year of devastation and dead wildlife, red tide appeared to be dissipating along Collier and Lee county shorelines in early October.

The latest sample results from the FWC, posted Nov. 20, showed patchy areas of medium concentrations of red tide at the south end of Sanibel and in the Lovers Key area near Bonita Springs in Lee County.

Counts in the rest of Lee and in Collier counties were mostly at natural background levels, according to the sample results.

"We have background to high concentrations detected from Lee to Pinellas County," Tracy Fanara, a scientist at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota, said last week after the samples were posted. "It's now patchy, which is much better because animals have the chance to go in and out of patches, and then beachgoers can find a space that's out of the bloom area."

Red tide season starts in October or November and typically ends when Gulf of Mexico temperatures cool in January or February.

Collini said she saw the dead dolphins during her daily beach walk after she left her condo, which is just north of the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club.

“It smelled like crazy and was laying there with its mouth open,” Collini said. “People couldn’t believe what they saw, and everybody was taking pictures of it.”

The first dolphin she saw was 5 to 6 feet long, while the second one was smaller, Collini said.

Collini, who has spent three seasons in Naples, said she has never seen a dead dolphin on the beach.

Jacobsen, who has been the harbormaster for 15 years, said it is rare to see dead dolphins wash up in Naples.

“The city of Naples has been blessed with not having dead dolphins wash up on its beaches before,” Jacobsen said. “This is an unfortunate and a unique situation for us. We all know of the water issues we’ve seen for the last year, and it’s up to the experts to decide if this is related.”

The most important step the public can take to assist investigators is to immediately report any sightings of live dolphins in distress or stranded, or dead dolphins, according to NOAA.

Make the report by calling the Southeast Marine Mammal Stranding Hotline at 877-WHALE HELP (877-942-5343) or by contacting the U.S. Coast Guard on VHF Channel 16.